Charles Darwin called earthworms ‘the intestines of the soil’. Worms can eat up to 75% . . . → Read More: How to make a wormery]]>
We’re joined today by Jo Middleton, who blogs at Slummy single mummy, with a fabulous tutorial on how to make a wormery. Perfect for a school gardening club project and for getting kids closer to nature. Here’s Jo’s guide:

How to make a wormery

Charles Darwin called earthworms ‘the intestines of the soil’. Worms can eat up to 75% of their own body weight every day, turning waste into rich and fertile compost. After decades of dependence on chemical fertilizers, people are returning to traditional non-toxic methods of gardening, and composting is one of the easiest ways to get eco-friendly.

Worm composting, or vermiculture, is a fun and easy way to turn your organic waste into plant food and is ideal for people who don’t have space for a full size composter. You don’t even need a garden – you can keep your wormery indoors and produce compost for houseplants and window boxes. A wormery is also a great way to introduce children to gardening and the environment as they can help to build and care for the wormery.

Building your own wormery

Expensive wormery kits are available to buy ready for assembly, but it is actually very straightforward to make your own. You will need a container, wood or plastic, that you can make holes in and fit with a lid. Worms are surface feeders so your wormery doesn’t need to be deep. 8in – 16in should be ample and you need roughly one square foot of surface area for every pound of waste per week.

Make air holes around the upper perimeter of your tub and in the bottom for drainage.

• Support your tub on bricks inside a tray, to collect any liquid that drains off. This liquid (leachate) can be used as plant feed.
• Fill the bottom of the tub with a 5 – 10cm layer of drainage material such as sand or gravel.
• Cover the sand with a dividing layer, something that will let moisture seep through but not worms, such as wooden slats or a section of carpet.
• Add a 10 – 15cm layer of damp bedding material. Shredded newspaper works well – get the newspaper wet, but not soaking – about the consistency of a damp sponge.
• Add your worms! These need to be special composting worms, often known as brandlings, tiger worms or red worms. You can buy theses at fishing shops or worm bin suppliers. (www.bucketofworms.co.uk)
• Add a layer of food.
• Place a thick layer of damp newspaper over the top. This keeps in the moisture and keeps out the light.
• Finally, make sure your wormery has a tight fitting lid. This protects your compost from rodents and flies.

Keeping your worms happy and healthy

Start off with just small amounts of food while your worms settle in. As they multiply you can add larger quantities, but make sure it is well chopped and only add more waste once the previous batch has been composted. Don’t feed your worms more than they can handle – excess waste will just rot, upset your worms and produce nasty smells.

Like humans, worms thrive on a varied diet and have particular likes and dislikes.

Worms like: coffee grounds and tea bags, fruit and vegetables peelings, cereals and bread, crushed egg shells.

Worms don’t like: meat and fish, fats or greasy foods, dairy products, rice, pasta or cooked potatoes.

Worms like a moderate temperature and eat more when they are warmer. Don’t let them overheat though, so keep out of direct sunlight. They can be kept inside or out, but will benefit from being indoors in the winter, maybe in a garage or shed.

Keep a good level of moisture – not too wet and not to dry. You can add extra dry bedding or moisten with rainwater or leachate if you need to. Your worms will regulate numbers to fit your wormery and should not try to escape if wormery conditions are right.

Once the worms have settled in you can sit back and watch them turn your rubbish into high quality compost! Depending on the size and conditions you should have compost ready to harvest in around 3 – 6 months.

Happy wriggling!

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Jo Middleton is a freelance writer, blogger and marketing consultant and writes the award winning blog Slummy single mummy.

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More kids gardening projects

For more kids gardening ideas visit our School Gardening Club section

Photos: Alexander von Halem and Clarity J

happily shared with the outdoor play party and your green resource

Kicking off our celebration of Eric Carle’s birthday this week we’re sharing three The Very Hungry Caterpillar craft ideas.

The Very Hungry Caterpillar is our favourite of Eric Carle’s books and is the first book I ever read to both my girls. It’s masterpiece of a children’s story, a joy to read and look at, and bursting . . . → Read More: The Very Hungry Caterpillar craft ideas]]>

Kicking off our celebration of Eric Carle’s birthday this week we’re sharing three The Very Hungry Caterpillar craft ideas.

The Very Hungry Caterpillar is our favourite of Eric Carle’s books and is the first book I ever read to both my girls. It’s masterpiece of a children’s story, a joy to read and look at, and bursting with possibilities to use as a spring board for lots of crafting, exploring and learning.

Mr. Carle is celebrating his birthday this week and Kate at An Amazing Child is hosting a week of fun, linking up many early years bloggers who are sharing ideas for activities and crafts linked to Mr. Carle’s books. We’re sharing some caterpillar craft ideas today and some butterfly crafts tomorrow. On Thursday we have a post full of ideas you can use to explore The Very Hungry Caterpillar with links to the EYFS.

Eric Carle is famous for his signature style, combining colour and texture and The Very Hungry Caterpillar is a perfect book to use to inspire children to try some art and crafting. When creating with young children I always like to give them plenty of opportunity to explore materials their way. Even though these projects are all designed to result in a caterpillar there is plenty of scope for each child to experiment and add their own style to the creations. The caterpillar crafts are all very simple to follow, inviting even very young children to have a try.

The Very Hungry Caterpillar craft: printing idea

Great for: exploring printing and stamping, talking about circles, exploring colour shades and colour combining

Provide some round objects to print with: potatoes (with a handle cut out to help little hands), carrots, cut in half (great for toddler hands to grasp) and cotton reels. Add several shades of green, and some red for the face, and let the children stamp out a caterpillar from the circles, selecting which shades they like the best. You don’t need to worry about keeping things neat and orderly – as much stamping as they like, overlapping circles in different shades, will give you an effect very like the original Hungry Caterpillar.

This is a good craft for talking about colour mixing as you can have fun testing out combining blue and yellow paints. Let the children experiment with different ratios of the two colours to create lots of different shades.

The Very Hungry Caterpillar craft idea: collage

Great for: fine motor skills, kids who love tearing paper or using scissors, exploring texture, trying out glue

Spread glue in a caterpillar shaped arch and add lots of different shades of green paper, combining as many patterns and textures as you can. Let the children choose which pieces they like best. Add a red face to complete your collage.

The Very Hungry Caterpillar craft idea: junk model caterpillar

Great for: using recycled materials, exploring colour shades, kids who love painting, working with 3 dimensions, story telling with models, small world play

To make your junk model caterpillar, cut out a body from an egg box. Provide different shades of green paint and paint brushes and sponges. Let the children apply the paint to the caterpillar in any pattern they choose (sticking your fingers in the paint is encouraged!)

Add a face and finger paint some eyes and a mouth.

Two bendy drinking straws make perfect antennae.  You can use your model to act out The Very Hungry Caterpillar story or take it out to the garden for some small world play. Find your caterpillar a nice green leaf and he’ll feel much better.

Join us again tomorrow when we’ll be celebrating The Very Hungry Caterpillar with butterfly craft ideas.

How to make a fairy garden

After making our miniature garden last week, the girls re-discovered our outdoor fairy garden at the weekend. The one we made last year has been well played with but was in need of a little spring cleaning, so they hunted round the garden to see what they . . . → Read More: How to make a fairy garden]]>

How to make a fairy garden

After making our miniature garden last week, the girls re-discovered our outdoor fairy garden at the weekend. The one we made last year has been well played with but was in need of a little spring cleaning, so they hunted round the garden to see what they could find to give it a revamp.

An old, broken plant pot has been given a new lease of life as a house, with a path of mussel shells leading up to the entrance – very neatly laid in ascending size order by L.

A few twigs for the framework and some woven garden twine provided the fences.

A lucky find was another old plant pot which had been completely overgrown with moss – giving them a perfect circle to make a lawn with. B peeled off some bark from an old log to make a bench and L laid out some cockle shells ‘all in a row’ for a border.

Two longer twigs make an archway, marking the entrance to the garden – I wonder if we can find a tiny plant which might grow over it?

Did you make a fairy garden with your children? If you have a link to share, the girls would love to see where the fairies live in your garden.

Find lots more fairy garden inspiration at the Magic Onions Fairy Garden Competition 2011

happily shared with get your craft on and abcand123 and tot school and the Sunday Showcase and Craft Schooling Sunday and   outdoor play and Friday’s nature table and It’s Playtime and Kids Get Crafty and Works For Me Wednesday

How do you go about promoting literacy outside?

After our garden audit we’re gearing up to make more use of our outdoor space now the summer is on the way. Here are five quick and easy ideas we’re using to take our literacy outside.

1. Go inside out: I bet you have plenty of writing materials . . . → Read More: Literacy outside]]>

How do you go about promoting literacy outside?

After our garden audit we’re gearing up to make more use of our outdoor space now the summer is on the way. Here are five quick and easy ideas we’re using to take our literacy outside.

1. Go inside out: I bet you have plenty of writing materials in your inside playspace but how easy is it for the children to get their hands on things to make their mark when they’re outside?

Where could you set up a writing station in the garden? A tub of you pencils on a picnic table. An easel in the shade of a tree. A roll of paper fastened against a wall. Pretty much any way you promote writing inside works out of doors too.

2. Paint a blackboard: A pot of blackboard paint is a worthwhile investment and can transform a plain old garden gate or shed door into a place children can make their mark.

You could start them off by drawing a tree trunk or some flower stems and seeing what pictures they add. Or make it an observation station and ask the kids to draw some of the bugs and butterflies they spot around the garden.

Chalk works just as well on walls or the floor of course, and is easily washed away with rain or watering cans, leaving a fresh canvas for the next day’s drawings.

3. Plain old water: One activity I remember from my own childhood, and which my kids love too, is painting with a bucket of water and a paintbrush on the patio floor.

Using paint pots with lids helps to avoid spills and providing paint brushes in an assortment of sizes, including big decorators paint brushes, invites different styles of drawing and writing.

4. Clipboards: A practical way to promote literacy outside is to have a stash of clipboards and pencils piled up near the door, ready for action. The boards provide a sturdy base for writing and so are easily taken out and about in the garden, to the beach, the woods or wherever you’re playing outside.

5. Story tents: As you’ll be thinking of providing somewhere shady for the children to keep cool, why not transform your shelter into a story tent?

Add some big cushions for lounging on and a pile of books. Choose some great outdoor themed stories and also information books on plants and animals, so the young scientists can read up on the nature they observe outside.

How are you going to promote literacy outside in your playspace this summer?

happily shared with outdoor play and Friday’s nature table and preschool corner and  it’s playtime